The Egyptian parliament's legislative and constitutional affairs committee will begin discussing draft amendments to the criminal procedures law (law 150/1950) on Wednesday. Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Omar Marawan told reporters the draft amendments aim to promote justice by speeding up litigation, particularly in terror-related cases, in a way that upholds the rights enshrined in Egypt's 2014 constitution. Bahaaeddin Abu Shoqa, the head of parliament's legislative and parliamentary affairs committee, told reporters the committee will hold a number of hearing sessions on the new criminal procedures law this week and next week. "Starting [Wednesday], judges will come to the committee to give their viewpoints on the new draft law," said Abu Shoqa, adding that the "head of the Higher Council for Judges, the chairman of the Cassation Court, and the heads of appeal courts in eight governorates have been invited to participate in the debate." Abu Shoqa also said that criminal law professors from Egyptian universities, as well as lawyers – including head of the Bar Association Sameh Ashour – will join the debate in two hearing sessions next week. "The hearing sessions could continue until September so that the amendments are ready for discussion and voting in plenary sessions when parliament's third legislative season begins in October," said Abu Shoqa. Abu Shoqa described the new criminal procedures law as "Egypt's second constitution." "We hope this law will observe the constitution in terms of guaranteeing fair trials for all citizens," said Abu Shoqa, adding that "these guarantees should be made available during the investigation, appeal and trial procedures." Abu Shoqa said that if the government-drafted amendments fall short of the required constitutional guarantees, the committee will intervene to address all concerns. "We will intervene whenever possible to ensure that citizens get fair and transparent trial," said Abu Shoqa. Though the criminal procedures law has been amended 20 times since it was issued in 1950, the cabinet said in a statement last month that the sluggish pace of trials has continued to undermine the principles of justice. "The amended law now includes 560 articles, 50 of which were amended and 44 are new," said the cabinet statement. "The amendments were drafted by a panel of judges, criminal law professors, members of the cabinet's Higher Committee on Legislative Reform, interior ministry legal experts, and representatives of civil society organisations," said the statement. Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Soliman Wahdan told reporters "the amendments will mainly help expedite trials of suspected terrorists." "Instead of a trial that will require 50 procedures, the new law aims to reduce them into just one step," said Wahdan, adding that "the current process allows trials of suspected terrorists to be strung out interminably, without any justification." Tharwat Bekheit, a member of the legislative and constitutional affairs committee, told reporters that the new law will also regulate custodial sentences so they do not infringe on personal rights. He said the law was amended in line with Article 54 of the constitution, which states that there must be a limit placed on custodial prison terms. The draft law will also prohibit the live broadcast of trials. "Besides, it will not allow the media to make public the names of judges in charge of supervising certain trials – particularly trials related to terrorism," said Bekheit, adding that "this stipulation was made in order to safeguard certain judges against any terrorist attacks." "We saw how some terrorist groups were able to kill the prosecutor-general and target several judges," said Bekheit. In some cases, the law requires newspapers to obtain the approval of judges before publishing news about trials so as to ensure that newspapers are objective in their coverage of high-profile cases. Bekheit revealed that interior ministry officials and MPs began to press for the 1950 criminal procedures law to be overhauled in the wake of last December's suicide bombing of a church attached to Cairo's St Mark's Coptic Cathedral, which left 27 people dead and more than 40 injured. "There has been a consensus since then that the law needed to be amended to help combat terrorism, reduce the length of trials, and address problems related to custodial sentences," said Bekheit.
